The corpses of 22 people – 19 passengers and three crew members – aboard a plane that crashed in the Himalayas, Nepal, yesterday Sunday, an official said.
Except for six foreigners, two German nationals and four Indian nationals, all the other victims were Nepalese nationals. The De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter twin-engine passenger plane crashed about 15 minutes after taking off from Pohara, 125 west of the capital Kathmandu, on Sunday morning. Its destination was Jomsom, a popular destination for tourists, pilgrims and climbers, 80 km to the west. The flight would take only twenty minutes.
“Rescuers have pulled out all 22 bodies from the crash site,” Dio Chandra Lal Karna, a spokesman for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, told Reuters.
Army men initially retrieved 21 bodies from the debris, scattered on a steep mountain slope, at an altitude of 14,500 feet (4,420 m.), yesterday Monday. The last one that was left was pulled out this morning, Mr. Karna clarified.
The bodies of 10 of the victims were transported to the capital Kathmandu yesterday and the remaining 12 will be transported by air today for an autopsy-necropsy and handed over to families, according to the same official. Their names were made public on Sunday.
The government of Nepal recommended a five-member committee to determine the causes of the crash and make recommendations for improving aviation safety.
Nepal, home to eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, has a poor history of flight safety due to inadequate pilot training and aircraft maintenance.
In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines (Bangladesh) plane crashed near Kathmandu airport, killing 51 of the 71 people on board.
The deadliest plane crash in Nepal occurred in 1992, when Pakistan International Airlines Aibus A300 with 167 people on board crashed near Kathmandu airport. No one survived.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
